Over the past 50 years there has been little change in the feeding technology used by the breeder industry which is based on a chain moving feed through a trough. In some areas feed is still distributed by an even older prior art by either broadcasting manually or by using manually filled hoppers throughout the shed. The latter two methods of feed distribution creates stress in the birds and has the potential for the birds to eat contaminated feed.
These prior art systems have the disadvantage that even though a male feed line is often provided, it is difficult to consistently exclude males from the female rations. This results in overweight males who are then incapable of producing the maximum number of fertile eggs per bird.
It is essential that a defined ideal bird weight as determined by the primary supplier is achieved for both sexes at a particular age if the maximum fertile egg production and feed utilization is to be realised.
The current feeding arrangements of the prior arts are based on the technology previously described and they are based upon the weekly handling of a sample of birds for weighing purposes. The results of these weighs form the basis for calculating the next week's feed rations.
To determine an accurate average weight for the flock, a hopefully representative sample of both male and female birds are manually selected from various parts of the shed and weighed. Based on these results the feed ration to be distributed for both sexes is calculated for the coming week. This manual handling places enormous stress on the birds which then leads to a drop of fertile egg production.
If the weighing shows an unacceptable uniformity of weight in the flock, the birds are sorted into smaller more evenly matched groups so that a remedial feeding program can be undertaken. This manual sorting of the flock is both costly, time consuming and stressful, not least of which is due to interference with the social order. There is also stress caused by handling.
With recent genetic improvements , a breeder hen can lay 180 eggs during its productive lifetime, however with the use of current systems, the hens more usually produce between 110 and 130 eggs.
It is an object of the invention to enable birds to achieve their most productive output by automatically calculating and updating the correct weight and volume of feed to be distributed to the birds using a statistically correct bird weight for age information base.